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British Chess Federation

Coulsdon Blitz, 30 August 2004 and Autumn Congress, 4-5 September 2004

The Chess was fast and then slow at CCF last week as we hosted our traditional August Bank Holiday Blitz competition on the evening of Monday August 30th and then are early September 2 day long play congress on the weekend of 4th-5th September.

The start of the new CCF Quick Play Grand Prix saw a field of 23 players contesting the Blitz event; running ahead of schedule most of the evening thanks to the new computer pairings program, the 7 round 10 minutes each tournament was over by 10-30pm. The winners were clear cut in each bracket as follows:

The weekend long play congress saw a total of 102 attending entries, playing over 5 sections in what was the 1st round of the 2004-5 Long Play Grand Prix. The punishing schedule of 3 rounds on Saturday was followed by the slightly less pressured 2 rounds on the Sunday. The top title of Open winner was shared by Thomas Rendle and Martin Taylor who held off the Coulsdon challenge of Ian Snape and Michael Franklin. No less than 6 players shared the under 190 grading prize, so with a field of 17 in the top section, over half won something!

Two long games for Tim Seymour clinched the Under 170 title. He managed to execute the Queen v Rook end game in round 4 before successfully claiming a draw by repetition in round 5 against Raul Portugal, who consequently shared 2nd with 3 other players. Kingston's Jinwoo Song took the honours in the Under 145 section whilst Coulsdon's James Foster struck again with another tournament victory to take the Under 120 section. The Under 90 title was shared between Stephen Billett (Portsmouth) and Roland Johnson (Brentwood).

Scott Freeman
CCF